The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) will not assist council contractors with removing material from a south Belfast bonfire site, but it will investigate a Co Tyrone pyre bearing an Irish flag and effigies of migrants in a boat.
The force said it received reports about the bonfire in Moygashel, Co Tyrone, and is investigating “this hate incident”.
The PSNI’s decision not to help disassemble the Belfast bonfire material follows “comprehensive engagement” with stakeholders and consideration of risks associated with removal, a PSNI spokeswoman said.
A Belfast City Council committee voted on Wednesday to send contractors to remove the towering pyre in the south of the city which is on a site that contains asbestos and is close to an electricity substation that powers two hospitals.
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The PSNI declared the bonfire on Meridi Street off the Donegall Road a “major incident” while it considered the council’s formal request for it to help remove it.
The consensus at a multi-agency meeting was that the “risk of the bonfire proceeding as planned was lower and more manageable than the intervention of contractors and the proposed methodology of dismantling the bonfire”, the PSNI spokeswoman said on Thursday evening.
The police service will “continue to work with partners and communities to manage the remaining risks surrounding this bonfire”, she added.
She said the force had examined the legality, necessity and proportionality of police involvement in deciding whether or not to assist.
“This involved carefully balancing potentially competing statutory and human rights obligations,” she said.
A multi-agency meeting to consider the request involved the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, Northern Ireland Electricity, Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service and Belfast City Council, she said.
Tensions are continuing to smoulder around this and a bonfire in Co Tyrone that is topped with an effigy of migrants in a boat.
Earlier, Sinn Féin said it was “unthinkable” that a contentious loyalist bonfire in Belfast would be allowed to go ahead. Party MLA Pat Sheehan called for “firm, immediate action” from the PSNI and said the silence from political unionism over the controversy has been “deafening”.
He added: “They must step up and make it clear they do not support the burning of materials that threaten hospital power supplies and risk releasing asbestos into the air.”
The Sinn Féin MLA added: “It is unthinkable that this bonfire could go ahead, endangering lives, damaging property and putting critical infrastructure at risk.”
The DUP leader on Belfast City Council, Sarah Bunting, said the council’s decision was “foolhardy” and risked increasing tensions with the local community.
In a social media post she said: “The decision to remove the bonfire was made without adequate consultation or consideration of community impact, and we believe it requires further scrutiny.
She said the decision is “political not a health and safety one”.
“It is foolhardy and has ramped tensions up in an area which has suffered considerably from interface problems,” she said.
Meanwhile, there have been calls to remove the effigies of migrants in a boat placed on the bonfire in Moygashel on the outskirts of Dungannon in Co Tyrone.
The boat containing more than a dozen life-sized mannequins wearing life jackets was unveiled on top of the bonfire. Below the boat are several placards, one stating: “stop the boats”, and another: “veterans before refugees”.
Overnight, an Irish tricolour flag was also placed on top of the bonfire, which is scheduled to be lit on Thursday night.
Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland John McDowell described the effigy as “racist, threatening and offensive”.
He added: “It certainly has nothing whatsoever to do with Christianity or with Protestant culture and is in fact inhuman and deeply sub-Christian.”
There are around 300 bonfires set to be lit across Thursday and Friday night ahead of the Orange Order’s July 12th parades on Saturday.
The traditional fires are lit ahead of the main date in the parading calendar of Protestant loyal orders, the Twelfth Of July.
While most of the bonfires pass off without incident, several have become the focus of contention due to the placing of flags, effigies and election posters on the structures before they are ignited. —Additional reporting PA
